HCC moves forward with culture change

Aug 18, 2016

“To affect change you have to have a game plan,” said Dr. Cesar Maldonado, Houston Community College (HCC) Chancellor as he unveiled a new internal engagement initiative aimed at forever changing the culture at HCC. FORWARD, a commonly used word, is now a guiding concept which stands for:

• Focus on students
• Optimism and Passion
• Reliability
• Workforce Preparedness
• Academic Excellence
• Responsiveness 
• Dedication to Innovation

During Fall Convocation 2016 at the Bayou City Event Center, Chancellor Maldonado challenged the large crowd of faculty and staff to think about how they can utilize FORWARD to improve their jobs and strengthen the student experience as they begin a new academic year.  

“Culture is critical to every organization. I believe it is even more important to education. Culture helps students win. It helps us all win,” said Maldonado, who used the Houston Texans as an example of how culture can drive winning attitudes.

“It’s hard work. It’s competition. It’s teamwork. It’s always putting the team first—never making yourself bigger than the team,” said Bill O’Brien, Houston Texans Coach.

Teamwork is at the heart of the current transformation process at HCC. For nearly two years, college leaders, staff, faculty, and consultants have created a strategy, identified values and behaviors, realigned the colleges, and developed a detailed strategic plan called “Imagine HCC 2019”. It has four overarching themes: student success, organizational stewardship, performance excellence, and innovation.

“We have made extraordinary progress,” said HCC Board of Trustees Chair, Dr. Adriana Tamez. “We have streamlined operations to make it easier to work with the college, revolutionized the student experience, and fundamentally reshaped how we work with businesses and industry partners.” 

The next step of the Transformation is launching the FORWARD campaign on the HCC campuses in September.

“I think it’s good to see that we are collectively focusing on one direction through transformation,” said Charlotte Hamilton, director of Educational Technology Services at Central College. “Of all the changes I’ve seen during my 30 years at HCC, this was the most significant and I think it’s really focused on serving students and customer service.”

The FORWARD movement resonated with Dr. Jimmy Adams, director of the HCC Media Arts & Technology Center of Excellence so much, that he jotted ideas on a napkin and plans to share them with his team.

“I was inspired. This is what we do every single day. I am going to apply all of this with my faculty and staff as we meet and talk about how we are going to address all of these,” he said.

To see the entire Fall Convocation 2016 presentation, share your thoughts, and learn more about Transformation, visit hccs.edu/transformation.